and now the fun begins!

it has only been 2 weeks, but at points it seems like months! i can't believe that what everyone worked so hard to do is finished :)! what a ride it has been though! i have wanted to finish this blog for sometime now, but have simply been on a rollar coaster ride myself :). today is literally the first day that i feel like i can breath easy for a couple of hours! it has been an emotional last couple of weeks. if anyone saw me on Sunday after we came home, you would have not been able to talk to me without me at some point crying. so from there we went straight into the school week. there was no break for many of the kids, as they immediately started dealing with stuff. it was as if the enemy tried to erase all the joy that we had. it was during those first few times though that i got a glimpse at just how much your kids grew. i started getting texts for prayers left and right...and so i would mass text the team and engage everyone to keep fighting for each other. the responses that i would get sounded something like this"i got this one"..."i'm on it"...etc. it was awesome!

as i continue to talk to the kids, i begin to see more and more of what God has in store for them. Luke and I both feel like this mission trip was different than all the others. the reason is that these kids are our mission...and it's not a mission to just show them how to get to Heaven...although we want to make sure that that is in place...it's a mission to get them to see that they are empowered by the Holy Spirit! Ephesians 3:20-21"now to Him who is able to do immesurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His Power that is at work within us. To Him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever, Amen! we are expecting God to work big in the kids' lives. i stand in awe that i get to be able to watch it...already, they have grown soooo much, more than i think they even know. to watch them these last couple of weeks, many of them have impressed me more than i can say! i see the seeds that have been planted start to grow. they are making decisions that blow my mind and choosing to stand firm and set apart!

what the next year looks like for us is sort of still in the vision stage, but fast approaching the hit the road running stage :)

we are needing prayers and prayer partners! God has really given me an excitement at what i feel is His path He is setting us on.

luke and i will be starting our own ministry at the end of the month called "Rebel Ministry". rebel came from a word that God placed on my heart last year. It has everything to do with my testimony and my personalitly trait that really got me in trouble when i was younger, but realized through becoming a Christian, that i could turn around and use it for God instead of against Him! (that is just a summary)....

with this ministry in place, we want to start recruiting kids that choose to rebel too. the definition of rebel is to fight against the ruling power. we want to help these kids to understand that there is a ruling power destroying people all around them. The ruling power of this day seems to be drugs, alcohol, sex, greed, etc...while kids will say that they are saved, the actions they choose do not always match up to their commitment to Christ. what we want to see happen, is kids choosing Christ and having their actions match that to set themselves apart and reap the blessings that come along with a life fully committed to serving Him!

what we want to see happen, is have your kids commit to helping out with this vision! i feel strongly that more kids will want to say yes to this way of living, if they see other kids living it out!

we want to see your kids step up and help with the training of next years trip. part of what rebel ministry's will be about is challenging kids to step up and be in charge of bigger things. we feel that they will be able to step up to most challenges that will be placed in front of them! my ultimate goal would be to see a mission trip ran completley by kids (with us overseeing of course)!

this year, the team will be probably bigger than last year, but i am excited for this because it sounds like we will have several repeats. and every time they repeat, they will be able to be challenged and trusted with more and more responsibility! we would like for all of the kids to come along for the ride that this year will bring! even if they can't come on the trip, we want them to be a part of the team from this end of things. not every year, will their mission to be to actually go, they might be the prayer leader, or the service project manager, etc. we are looking to add several new things to training this year!

so you can see that my mind is spinning, and hopefully soon, i will be able to give you more clearer of a picture of when this will all begin! in the mean time, please be praying about yourself and your kids possible role in what God would want you to do, if anything, with our vision for next year!

we have been so blessed to have the team that we did, go for this first trip! we feel that there will be many more to come...but it won't happen without prayer!! we will be having an evening in the very near future to get together and have all the kids recap what they saw and felt. it will be an incredible evening that will be so neat for the kids! i will give you more information on that when we have the date set! at that time, we will be able to give our account of the overall trip a bit more clearly too!

thanks again for trusting us with your kids! we have been blessed because you have said yes! we love you all and just praise God for putting us in the middle of people who allow us to do what God has told us to do! We can't wait to see what 2010/2011 has in store!